August 25 Through History

Explanation: The liberation of Paris began on August 19, 1944, with an uprising by the population. General Leclerc entered the capital on August 25, and German General von Choltitz signed the surrender. Hitler had ordered Paris to be destroyed rather than surrendered, an order that von Choltitz did not carry out.

Explanation: Voyager 2 remains to this day the only probe to have flown past Neptune. The 6 moons discovered are named after characters from Greek sea mythology. Neptune has 16 known moons in total, the largest of which, Triton, orbits in the opposite direction to the planet's rotation, which is extremely rare.

Explanation: Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, declared its independence from Brazil. Squeezed between Argentina and Brazil, this small country is sometimes nicknamed the 'Switzerland of Latin America' for its political stability and high standard of living in the region.

Explanation: Guillaume Apollinaire, whose real name was Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, is one of the pioneers of surrealism and literary cubism. His collections 'Alcools' (1913) and 'Calligrammes' (1918) are his major works. He coined the word 'surrealism' and died in 1918 from the Spanish flu, weakened by a war wound.

Explanation: Linux was created by Finnish developer Linus Torvalds, who was a student at the University of Helsinki at the time. He announced his project in a famous message on the Usenet forum in August 1991. The Linux kernel is today at the heart of the majority of the world's servers, Android smartphones, and supercomputers.

Explanation: Interstellar space begins beyond the heliosphere, the zone of influence of the solar wind. Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is now traveling more than 23 billion kilometers from the Sun. It takes about 22 hours for its radio signals, traveling at the speed of light, to reach Earth.

Explanation: The Raft of the Medusa depicts the shipwreck of the French frigate Méduse in 1816 off the coast of present-day Mauritania. Of the 147 survivors abandoned on a makeshift raft, only 15 survived. The work caused a scandal because it denounced the incompetence of an officer appointed through favoritism under the Restoration.

Explanation: Ivan IV became Grand Prince of Moscow at just 3 years old upon his father's death in 1533, but under a regency. He took the title of Tsar in 1547, at 17, becoming the first Russian ruler to officially bear this title. His nickname 'the Terrible' (Grozny in Russian) actually means 'the Fearsome' or 'the Awe-inspiring'.

Explanation: Sean Connery played James Bond in seven films, from 'Dr. No' (1962) to 'Never Say Never Again' (1983). He won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for 'The Untouchables' in 1988. Before films, he had worked as a coffin polisher, sailor, and even a bodybuilder.

Explanation: nicknamed the 'Miracle on the Vistula', the Battle of Warsaw was one of the most decisive battles of the XXth century according to many historians. Marshal Piłsudski's victory stopped the Bolshevik advance toward Western Europe. If the Soviets had won, the history of Central Europe could have been radically different.